Many online social experiences, including but not limited to video games, shared art creation, debates, etc., are conducted in a turn-by-turn manner. In such settings, some participants may deliberately delay by refusing to make a move on their turn. This tactic is known as stalling. Stalling may be frustrating to other participants due to the disruption caused to the flow of the experience.
Various methods have been used to try to solve the problem of stalling. For example, one approach is to give participants the option to vote to eject a participant from the game, requiring majority or unanimous consent. Another approach is to employ a stall timer wherein, after a fixed period of time, other participants have an option to start a visible timer on a stalling participant, giving the stalling participant an additional fixed amount of time to finish a turn before a penalty is assessed against the stalling participant. Another approach employs a turn timer in which each participant has a known, visible fixed period of time to finish a turn. A similar concept is to utilize a chess-style timer in which each participant has a known, fixed amount of time to finish a game. Yet another approach employs a “three-strikes” system in which, after a fixed period of time has passed during a participant's turn, another participant or the host computer is able to call a “strike” on that participant. After three strikes have been called on the participant during a game, the participant is ejected.
While these approaches are each somewhat effective in controlling a stalling participant, they offer various disadvantages. For example, the use of the vote-to-eject approach requires multiple participants to agree. Likewise, visible timers utilize persistent, space-consuming user interface elements. Further, a visible timer allows a stalling participant to wait until just before turn time elapses before moving. Additionally, the use of timers may be too rigid an approach for a friendly online gathering where participants do not mind waiting on their friends occasionally.